Christmas Vacation!

Sorry this is late--you know how it is, getting back 'into the swing of things' after the holidays.  The week after we got back from our trip, we were both sick for about a week.  And work for me has been crazy busy and with Zak back in school, juggling everything and Penny as well, life has been very busy.  But very, very good.  I'll do another post soon with more recent stuff soon.

But first: Christmas!  Zak and I were lucky to spend Christmas in Connecticut with his family, including his sister's new fiancé, Rich.  We flew into Boston a few days before and stayed with Zak's best friend from high school, Dan, and his girlfriend, Viola.  We had a great, great time with them.  The first night we went to a very fun concert downtown, it was a Christmas 'sing-a-long' with Sufjan Stevens.  They had a huge wheel that they'd spin and we'd all sing along to their renditions of traditional Christmas & holiday songs.  It was really fun.  The next day we spent half indoors, half outdoors.  We walked around their neighborhood, Jamaica Plains and enjoyed the different shops and restaurants.  For dinner we ordered Indian food and were thrilled to eat and hang out with Dan & Viola.  They are both so much fun and it's a shame we live so far away!  Saturday came and Dan was kind enough to drive us to Connecticut (his parents still live near Zak's family).

Christmas tree made of poinsettias made me laugh too much at 5 AM

less than thrilled in Denver (it was a long, long day)

'Wheel of Christmas' @ the concert

awesome house near Dan & Viola's

Indian food!

their funny cat, Tilly

It was nice to have some down time with Zak's family, especially because we haven't been back to CT in 3 years!  The weather was very nice & mild, which made it nice for driving.  We spent Sunday in New York, visiting Gram & Walt in their new house.  We had a nice dinner with the family and I learned how to actually play Hearts.  For Christmas Eve dinner we did 'Bethlehem Dinner', which is a tradition Zak's family has done for some years running.  It was my first time experiencing it and I really enjoyed it!  We had roast chicken, a delicious red lentil soup, pineapple, nuts, bread, pitas, clementines and baklava (we made it for dessert!)

sunrise on Christmas Eve outside the front door

I wanted to take some pictures of classic New England houses, so Zak drove me around..I love this one!

Zak's new Western boots from Grpa Walt

 

Zak was thrilled to have half-sour pickles at the deli

aah, deli food!

Zak loved playing with/annoying the cat

another classic New England house I loved

Liv was all about Delaney's boots and she put them on like this. Because she's a goofball.

most of Bethlehem dinner

We woke up to snow on Christmas morning!  We had a nice, relaxing day opening presents, eating lots of yummy food and vegging out.  Zak totally surprised me and got me an iPhone for my birthday-Christmas present.  He gave it to me a few weeks before Christmas because we had to activate it.  I was so surprised and I just love it!  I surprised him with a Kindle Paperwhite; we've both been trying to read a lot more and he's mentioned he might like a Kindle.  So I did my research and ended up going for the newest version.  I also found a lot of books by his favorite authors online and put them on a jump drive for him.  He was blown away!  We also got some great stocking stuffers, clothes, gift cards and books from the family.  Zak got a Cabela's gift card & was able to go have some 'male bonding time' with his dad & Rich--I was pleased to use my Macy's gift card to buy some adorable boots!

Merry Christmas from the Reillys

Later in the evening, we had a little Christmas program.  Liv and Delaney played a few duets together (Liv plays the violin, Delaney, the oboe).  Liv played a really beautiful solo--it was really cool for us to see how much she's improved in the last few years!  When I first met Livvy, she was a shy little 6 year old with a cute mini violin.  I was blown away with how excellent she's gotten!  I played a piano solo and practiced for weeks on--a medley of Silent Night & Still, Still, Still.  It's a very beautiful piece and it felt so nice to be able to preform again.  Glenda told me later that she loved it; it was her favorite song!  I'm so glad I was able to play that for her!

The next day I flew out to California for my cousin's wedding.  Zak stayed behind in CT to spend time with his family.  I know they went shooting and one night got a ton of snow.

My trip to CA was so much fun, but so short!  Every night on this trip for me, I fell dead asleep in 2 minutes.  Every day of my vacation was packed, but I loved every day.  It was so nice to be back in CA with my family, it's been a rough year for my family and it was nice to be home for my cousin's wedding.  And it was awesome to have Jenna home from her first semester of college at BYU-Hawaii.  We had lots of fun being goofy sisters together, like usual.


The wedding and all the pre-wedding stuff was really fun.  Jenna played prelude music for the ceremony and went with me to the rehearsal a few days before.  After the rehearsal we had a big family dinner at the stake center in Oakland.  It was a blast, we had the best family dishes and my cousin's family who lives in Hawaii was able to make it out for the wedding.  I spent a good 30 minutes playing 'Harry Potter Wand Fighting' with Caleb (age 5) on the floor, trying to remember Harry Potter spells.  I was also really happy to spend some time with Kenny's girlfriend of almost a year, Kristen.  They are super cute together and it was nice to have them hang out with us.  We also went to go see Les Mis that night with Kristen & cousin Allie.  It was SO amazing and we had a great time singing afterwards!!

dorky pirates

Kristen & Kenny

me & my girlies

normal

My 25th birthday was a great time.  I had breakfast with my best friends--it had been 3 years since we had all been together!  It was so nice to catch up.  Anne had a baby boy in August and brought him along.  We all fell in love with Titan and played with him while we had breakfast.  It was so much fun!  I got to spend the rest of the day with my family, mostly hanging out, but also included going to Costco (a serious favorite pastime of mine) and San Francisco!  It just so happened that the annual fancy family dinner in the City at L'Olivier lined up with my birthday (oh darn, haha!).  We had a slightly smaller group this year, but it was just as much fun as it always is.  It's nice to get dressed up, eat fancy food and be around all my cousins.  Everything was incredibly delicious and everyone sang Happy Birthday to me.  I felt bad that Zak was missing out (everyone was sad he wasn't able to make it out to CA), but I know he was having a good time with his family.   

Anne, baby Titan & Mari

 

mine & Amy's turn with the baby!

besties :)

pretty girls!

Sasha & Alex's wedding was awesome.  I am SO glad I was able to be there for it.  Sasha has always been like an older sister to me, and we've always been very close.  It's been harder as we've grown up and I've moved away, but we always click right back into place when we're together.  I loved being a bridesmaid and enjoyed prepping before everything.  It was so much fun having all us girls putting on make-up, doing our hair, listening to the great wedding prep mixes I made.  I somehow ended up driving all us ladies around Alameda--which I had never been to, so it was an adventure!  Thank heavens for smartphones, right?  Pictures were really fun, we were super lucky to have a beautiful day, it was even quite warm!

The ceremony was the definition of 'short & sweet'.  It was beautiful and romantic and I teared up the whole time.  It was hard to not have Zak with me, but it was so wonderful to have the rest of my family there.  After the ceremony, we did more pictures and I drove us to the reception.  Some technical delays aside, everything was so much fun.  I got to spend a ton of time with my little cousin, Annalise, who is a year and a half old.  She is so cute & funny!  She loved playing with my phone & is better at than me!  She knew how to slide it open, go to the camera, take pictures, call people...incredible!  She took about 25 pictures of herself, and it cracked me up.  The food was great, I loved sitting at the Bridal Table and getting served!  Sasha's Maid of Honor/Best Friend Karen gave a lovely toast and Alex's Best Man/Best Friend James gave a really wonderful toast.  After the first dance and father-daughter dances, it turned into a really fun and silly dance party.  I spent the next few hours dancing and having so much fun with my family.  The little cousins were SO cute dancing.  It was beyond adorable.

Ali & I are pretty bridesmaids!

 

Annalise is soooo cute!

me & the beautiful bride :)

Sunday was my birthday dinner.  We also went to church & it was nice to see lots of old friends, the kids who have grown up, etc.  It's always nice coming back to CA and catching up with everyone.  We had my birthday dinner at Grandma's (macadamia chicken) and it was so much fun.  The cousins & friends played Taboo, a game our family plays a lot.  It was a great ending to my trip.

snow hat twins

Mom showed us our plates we made when we were in preschool (?) Jenna's is the bottom left, Kenny's is in the center, mine is in the lower right....pretty accurate, right?

Nebeker & Van Vliet girls

pretty pictures on the way home

 Zak and I both flew into Spokane on New Year's Eve.  I had about 2 hours to wait for his plane to land.  I got to use the Kindle Paperwhite my grandparents got for my birthday & Christmas (this year was full of fancy device surprised!) and wait for him, more or less patiently.  Even spending a few days apart is a little hard on us.  But it was a great reunion and we had a nice drive home, talking about our trips.  The roads were clear and we got back home mid-evening.  We would've gone out with our friends for NYE, but we crashed at about 9 or 10 PM.  We were both so exhausted and Zak was 3 hours later as well.

All in all, this was a fantastic trip!  We both had a lot of fun and it was SO nice to see as many people as we did!  I was so happy I was able to be there for the wedding and spend time in CT as well!  I love being back east, hopefully we'll be able to go a little more often.  Zak and I are blessed to have great family and friends.  We are thankful for all of you in our life--thanks for making our life so great!